Peoples Daily

By Richard Ihediwa

The Senate yesterday followed the House of Representatives by passing a resolution ordering the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to discontinue the issuance of new vehicle number plates and driver’s license as such is beyond FRSC’s mandate.
This followed the adoption of a motion to that effect by Senator Dahiru Kuta and 19 others, who drew the attention of the Senate to the controversies the indiscriminate fees charged by the FRSC on the new number plates and driver’s license and prayed the upper house to prevail on the corps to hands off the process.
Senators unanimously supported the motion with many of them pointing out that the number plates issued by the commission were illegal since the law establishing it does not empower it to issue number plates.
Presenting his motion, Kuta lamented that FRSC has abandoned it primary mandates of ensuring safety on Nigeria roads and turned itself into revenue generating agency.
“The commission was not established principally as a revenue generating agency for states or Federal Government, but the commission in recent times has embarked on frequent and arbitrary introduction and reintroduction of vehicle number plates and driver’s licenses.
“The new driver’s license which the commission launched in 2011 is now issued for N6,000 as against the N3,000 while the new number plates have suddenly jumped from N5,000 to an astronomical N15,000”, he said.
Lawmakers including Senators Smart Adeyemi and Barnabas Gemade PDP, Kogi described the new number plates as too exorbitant for motorists and illegal.
Ruling, Senate President, David Mark said the issuance of new number plates by FRSC was an imposition of additional burden on Nigerians.

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